Friday’s Top-50 Results/Links (April 16)

The University of Oregon Ducks – in just the second year of the program’s return to Division I status – strengthened their NCAA Tournament resume on Friday night with a 5-4 win at UCLA, the #2 team in the CB360 Composite National Rankings (CNR … the Bruins started 22-0, but are 4-4 over the past two weeks). Oregon is one week removed from posting another big upset, 6-5 vs. the CNR’s current #1 team Arizona State (front-page photo courtesy of Oregon)

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(Note – time permitting, CB360 may be adding some more action photos from Friday’s games to this page, similar to what was done for the games on Sunday, April 11 … check back later for the possible addition of photos.)

There were nine other Friday upsets of CB360 top-50 teams, including a big win for a #45 Stanford team (14-6, at #14 Oregon State) – one week after the Cardinal had dropped 2-of-3 at home vs. Oregon. Stanford scored five of its runs (four earned) on 10 hits vs. OSU ace Greg Peavey (no-decision), who one week earlier crafted a 2-hitter vs. UCLA and was named the CB360 national Primetime Pitcher of the Week. The Beavers actually held a 6-4 lead on Friday, heading into the 7th, but Stanford put up a pair of 5-run innings to pull away.

Three other top-50 upsets on Friday involved top-25 teams in the CNR: UC Santa Barbara 5, at #17 Cal State Fullerton 3 (halting the recent surge by CSF, which failed to overcome the absence of injured ace Noe Ramirez) … at Florida Atlantic 10, #18 Western Kentucky 3 (possibly putting a dent in WKU’s hopes to earn an NCAA at-large spot, if needed?) … and Washington 6, at #22 California 3 (ending the Bears’ win streak at 10).

Nearly one-third of Friday’s scheduled games involving CB360 top-50 teams (13 of 37) were head-to-head showdowns between top-50 squads. One of the night’s top games saw #12 South Carolina shut out #20 Mississippi, as SC senior RHP Blake Cooper (CG; 4H-BB-10) and Ole Miss jr. LHP Drew Pomeranz (no-decision; 7IP-2H-4BB-10K) combined to throw 16 shutout half-innings, with the dominant pair allowing only six combined hits and four walks (countered by 20 strikeouts between them).

There were two one other matchups between CNR top-25 teams, as #6 Georgia Tech edged #16 Clemson, 8-6 (on Chase Burnette‘s 11th-inning home run), and #21 Vanderbilt won 11-6 at #24 Auburn. In other noteworthy results, #3 Virginia rallied for a 4-2 win over visiting #25 Virginia Tech (kicking off possibly the biggest series ever between the in-state rivals) and #5 Texas needed extra-innings for a 4-3 road win over its longtime rival, #32 Texas A&M – while #35 Southeastern Louisiana won 10-1 at #37 Texas State, in a matchup of the Southland Conference’s top teams.

(Note: be sure to scroll down the page to see pregame links and CB360’s exclusive pitching matchup charts for the CB360 top-50 showdowns.)

The rest of Friday’s top-50 upsets – compared to the victories by Oregon, Stanford, UCSB, FAU and Washington – were a bit less noteworthy, as they came vs. teams ranked #41 or lower in the CNR: at Nebraska 11, #41 Kansas 7 (the Huskers also opened their series last week by upsetting Kansas St.) … at Liberty 12, #42 VMI 9 (a couple days after the Keydets had upstate in-state power UVa) … at Elon 3, #47 Western Kentucky 0 … Ohio State 10, at #48 Michigan State 1 (opening a key series in the Big Ten, which ultimately could receive only one NCAA bid this season) … and at UC Riverside 8, #50 Long Beach State 7.

(Note: there were only four D-I games on Thursday, one of them involving a CB360 top-50 team, as #13 TCU won at BYU, 14-8 … Final Stats … TCU Recap … BYU Recap).

CB360’s expanded top-50 page follows below, with starting pitching matchups (including headshots) added for the 13 big matchups. An assortment of postgame links for all 37 games (recaps for both teams, final stats, video highlights, photos, etc.) also is included. Always be sure to follow the CB360updates Twitter update for details on all of the games involving CB360 top-50 teams (some more still to be tweeted for Friday games).